Illintsi (illintsy, Linitz)
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Vinnytsia

Execution of Jews in Ilintsi

3 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before :

Forest/Ditches outside the town

Memorials :

Yes

Period of occupation:

1941-1944

Number of victims :

About 2,000

Witness interview

Esther B., a Jewish survivor, born in 1928: « If I can say though we were lucky with my mother, because once they divided us in two groups, the first group was taken directly to the shooting, and the second, including my mother, my aunt and I were taken to the so called “Experimentally station”, a sort of a forced labor camp. We stayed in the kolkhoz building guarded by the local police and Germans. One night, my mother and I managed to flee and we went to the nearby village of Boliukhovka, where the local people helped us to join the partisan group headed by Jew, whose name was Mudryk David Leibovych. The group was stained in the forest close to the village of Shabelna. It had over a hundred of people of different nationalities. The partisan unit was very active. They placed the mines on the railroads. The Germans were afraid to come into the forest. The living conditions were very rough. We slept in foxholes and ate what we found in the forest. Some local people brought us food, especially in winter when was cold. My mother cooked food for partisans and I helped her. We stayed there till the end of the war." (Testimony n°2173, interviewed in Illintsi, on November 14, 2016)

Soviet archives

"On April 24, 1942, a regular German unit accompanied by the local police rounded-up over one thousand civilians and took them to the pits dug in advance close to the hamlet of Galikovo, 2km away from Illintsi. On the site, they were severely beaten, forced to undress under the threat of gun, and after they were shot. There were many women, elder people and children among them.
On May 27, 1942, the Germans rounded-up over 800 civilians and confined them in the building of the former Jewish school. Once there, the detainees were beaten, tortured and humiliated. After, these people were brought to the field and shot." [Act of State extraordinary commission, drawn up on April 15, 1945 ; RG.22-002M: Fond 7021, Opis 54, Delo ?]

German archives

“November 5, 1941: 43 people were shot;
April 24, 1942: at least 1,000 people shot;
March 27, 1942: over 800 people shot;
December 15, 1942: 1,000 people shot;
December 1942: 200 people burned alive in the factory;
March 1943: 9 people were shot.
In all, 5, 087 people were shot. […]” [From the report on the executions conducted in Gebietskommissariat Ilintsi, drawn up on December 12, 1969; B162-7377 p.2]

Historical note

Illintsi is a town, located 53km southeast of Vinnitsa. The first record about Jewish community dates back to the middle of 17th century. By the end of 19th century the Jews represented the half of total population as there were 4, 993 Jews living in the town. The majority of Jews lived off small business holding textiles shops, groceries, and garment shops. Others were artisans. There was a Yiddish school, a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery and a council. The synagogue was divided into two parts, one for poor Jews and another one for the rich. The buildings still remain today. The number of Jews dropped dramatically due to pogroms organized by Denikins’ army in 1919. On the eve of the war, there were 2,217 Jews living in the town comprising 64% of total population. Illintsi was occupied by the Germans on July 23, 1941. By that time many local Jews successfully fled to the East, however there were many Jewish refugees from the West who stayed. According to the historical sources, about 2,000 Jews stayed in the town at the moment of its occupation.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Immediately after the German occupation, under the military administration, a Jewish council, Judenrat, was created and all Jews were registered and subjected to pay a tribute. One month after, an open ghetto was created. However, the local witnesses mentioned that the ghetto was fenced in with barbed wire of 2m high. From late October, the military administration was changed into the civil one. According to the German and Soviet archives, the Jewish community was exterminated in the course of several aktions which lasted from the fall 1941 till March 1943. The executions were conducted by Gendarmeria, Security police stationed in Vinnitsa with the help of local police. The first execution was conducted in the early November 1941, during which 43 Jewish men under the pretext of the supporting communists were beaten and shot in the nearby forest. According to an eyewitness interviewed by Yahad, the first Aktion was conducted over the course of two days. On the first day, 17 intellectuals were killed and on the second – 30 more. A second aktion was conducted in the late April 1942, during which about 1,000 inmates were rounded up from the ghetto and shot in the ditches 2km away from the town. In late May 1942, another aktion was carried out against the ghetto inmates who were rounded up, confined in the synagogue for a while and then taken to the shooting located on the South, outside the town. According to different sources, there were from 434 to 800 victims. In the late December 1942, during the liquidation aktion, the Germans set fire on the factory where the Jews were hiding and burned alive about 200 Jews. Those who attempted to escape were shot dead. According to the archives and the survivors, a camp of forced labor was created at the end of 1942. There was a resistance group formed from the Jewish inmates and headed by David Mudryk, who managed to escape and organized partisan unit. Several survivors who managed to hide during the rounds-up joined the partisans group and survived the war. The remaining Jews, mostly specialist were killed during the last aktion in March 1943. Isolated executions occurred regularly during all the occupation period.